domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today. >>> welcome back to "starting point." i'm christine romans. dow futures down a bit. s&p 500, nasdaq up. markets had a tough day yesterday. since the election, the dow is down nearly 700 points. this morning, we learned the eurozone has fallen back into recession, the second recession in europe in four years. european markets lower. and there is the looming tax increases, spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff. ceos, though, were optimistic about their 90-minute meeting with the president yesterday. mike duke writing, quote, our customers are working hard to adapt to the new normal. but their confidence is still very fragile. they're shopping for christmas now. they don't need uncertainty over a tax increase. there you go. remember the fiscal cliff was designed to be something so bad that we would never get close to it. >> now we're talking about it, like it's not a cliff. it's a slope. it's not a slope. it's really a stairwell. it's notty stairwell. it's b